New wine app for the iPhone

This week Wine Enthusiast (WE) jumped in the iPhone/iTouch app market with a wine app of their own. For $9.99 you can download the app that will give you access to all the wine reviews in the Wine Enthusiast database, vintage charts, a very in depth wine glossary and more.

The interface for all the features is nice and very user friendly. The search function of the database allows you to choose from a variety of things from vintage to appellation.Great tool if you need help shopping especially if it’s for someone else who doesn’t like the same things you do. If you plan ahead, you can use the virtual shopping list that the program has so when you get to the wine shop you know exactly what you need to get.

Even for a wine geek there are some things you just don’t know or can’t remember, having a wine dictionary in your pocket is quite handy when someone asks what the consejo regulador is.

I like the vintage chart because again it is hard to remember what the season was like in the Columbia Valley in 2002. Of course the ratings for the vintages are subjective and based on the judgments of the WE writers, but it can definitely help you out in a pinch when staring at a wine list. The only problem with the vintage info is that it doesn’t list any information for Virginia! L Boo!

Overall I think it is a fun wine tool but $9.99 may be a bit much. Wine Spectator has their mobile app which basically opens up Safari and logs you into their site, and only works if you have an online account. WS also doesn’t have the glossary or the Wine 101 features either and an online account for WS is much more than $9.99. My biggest unfilled need with the program is that it doesn’t have the option to record tasting notes. So I still need to use my other app Wine Snob ($4.99) to record tasting notes and bottle information.The Wine Snob program also has a glossary and pairing dictionary but the glossary isn’t nearly as in depth as the WE app.